UNESCO

National parks are the "spacious skies" and "mountain majesties" of elementary school choirs. They're living postcards from adventurers who had the foresight to preserve natural wonders for those who followed.

The 59 U.S. parks are stark and arid, elevated and lush, watery and forbidding. They're wild. And perhaps most important, they're common ground. The vast acreage managed by the National Park Service may be the only place where chasms unite us. Park Service lands are as diverse as the visitors they serve and the flora, fauna, ground and water they protect.

National parks are an American superlative - beautiful to the extreme.

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